So I am very seriously thinking about making the jump to an SSD boot drive but I want to hear from veteran users to see if I'm understanding things correctly. I should also note that I did read Sean Websters excellent SSD guides.

So major facts that I know so far...
1. Don't worry too much about long term durability as long as you're not abusing the drive or doing commercial server level work.
2. Don't defrag SSD's.
3. Buy from reputable makers. (Kinda of a duh moment for me.)
4. Don't fill the drive all the way up.

Now if I go ahead with this switch I plan using the SSD as solely as the boot drive (Win 7 Ultimate 64bit) with all games and the bulk of programs going to a 1-3TB HDD, but I want to know if its true that having a PCIE mounted SSD is noticeably faster then a normal SATA III set up?

If it is are there any extra things I'll have to do to set up this type of drive?

I'm going to using a ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard (LGA 2011 X79) if that comes to play.

Any recommendations for drives? ($150-$200-ish)

I'm hoping that I can with this set up get away from my current 7 min boot up.

1. I've had my C300 for 2 years and 3 months give or take and it's actually gotten better over time (firmware helped but just in general after every reformat I check it) so I wouldn't be so worried about long term.
2. No need for defrag, TRIM/Garbage Collection does the same type of thing automatically when the system is idle.
3. I'd agree there.
4. I have a 256GB and I've never had it filled up and put all my programs on it. However I do put all my music, videos, etc on my RAID so none of that is taking up any space. I've heard the Vertex's get quite a bit slower initially once you hit the 50% mark but my C300 doesn't do that.

I'd recommend looking at the Samsung 830/840 series, if you can find something in the next few days during Black Friday there should be some deals going on. I'm currently looking at getting an 840 pro if I can find a good deal on one. I've also heard really good things about the Crucial M4. Boot times should drop drastically, mine on W7 are less than a minute from cold boot.

There's tons of small tweaks you can do after you buy one that will help prolong the life of it and keep it running fast, just look around these forums and the internet.

So I am very seriously thinking about making the jump to an SSD boot drive but I want to hear from veteran users to see if I'm understanding things correctly. I should also note that I did read Sean Websters excellent SSD guides.

So major facts that I know so far...
1. Don't worry too much about long term durability as long as you're not abusing the drive or doing commercial server level work.
2. Don't defrag SSD's.
3. Buy from reputable makers. (Kinda of a duh moment for me.)
4. Don't fill the drive all the way up.

Now if I go ahead with this switch I plan using the SSD as solely as the boot drive (Win 7 Ultimate 64bit) with all games and the bulk of programs going to a 1-3TB HDD,

With that price you can get a 256GB drive...that should EASILY cover all of your program installs. Games however would be best to put on the HDDs and move them over to the SSD as you play them with steam mover or symbolic links. However, load times are only slightly faster on a SSD for me for the games I play. SO I only have a RAID 0 array with a SSD cache now because it if.

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but I want to know if its true that having a PCIE mounted SSD is noticeably faster then a normal SATA III set up?

Use the native Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports.

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If it is are there any extra things I'll have to do to set up this type of drive?

Nothing really. Just follow my install guide and you will be set.

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I'm going to using a ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard (LGA 2011 X79) if that comes to play.

Thankfully I haven't actually put the order in so I'll go ahead and take your recommendation for the KingstonX since beside they're still in stock and I know the company usually makes a quality product. Thanks all again!